Discovery Bay

In the 1970s, a brand new land was officially announced for Disneyland. Discovery Bay was meant to be a literary enclave built on the northern edge of the Rivers of America, right at the confluence of Frontierland and Fantasyland. That’s fitting, because as we explored in our in-depth Possibilityland: Discovery Bay feature, this retro-futuristic land would’ve answered the question, “What happened to all those miners who struck it rich in the Gold Rush of Big Thunder Mountain?”

The answer is simple: they would’ve pressed onward, heading West to the young port of San Francisco. There, they would’ve used their newfound wealth to the development of a nautical port of inventors, artists, adventurers, and immigrants from around the globe. Discovery Bay was meant to be a steampunk-stylized, turn-of-the-century seaport where you might find hot air balloons, submarines, and sailing ships all parked together at the dock. Discovery Bay never came to be (and in fact, the land remained unused until Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opened in 2019)…

... But there's no better place for that to change.

After all, California Adventure is the perfect place for this adventurous, steampunk San Francisco – a sort of “Frontierland” for the park, filled with literary heroes and nautical adventures. Fantasic and otherworldly, yet grounded, historic, and real, this immersive land of coastal treasures would be a great fit for the park and for this space. You can see that I added a lot of water here, and that’s on purpose.

Entering from the park’s “spine”, guests would cross a boardwalk over the water (fed by Grizzly Peak’s waterfall) and enter a street of multi-story facades. I picture this land (and particularly its Wharf area) as borrowing from Diagon Alley – whimsical, slanted buildings painted in earthy purples and greens and oranges; weather-worn and whimsical, advertising seance parlors and inventors and candy shops that may or may not exist behind each doorway.)

And on the left upon entering would reside the SEA MAIDEN – a sailing ship docked in a narrow inlet set against facades of whimsical pierfront storefronts. The area in front of the ship would be a small playground of climbable crates, cargo nets, slides, and more. A gangplank onto the ship itself would lead to multiple levels for guests to discover, including references to the legendary Society of Explorers and Adventurers.

That narrow streetscape would also include the ramshackle workshop of PROFESSOR MARVEL’S GALLERY OF WONDERS. At last giving California Adventure its own Tiki-Room-style Audio-Animatronic show, this concept (extrapolated from plans for the initial Discovery Bay back in the ’70s) would see a whimsical, musical, magical traveler named Professor Marvel welcome guests into his gallery of singing mechanical marvels, enchanted plants, and more, all aided by his sidekick – a fanciful green dragon. (Yes, this concept eventually evolved into the Lost Legend: Journey into Imagination.)

Here, I also included a reborn version of the Lost Legend: The Adventurers Club – a sort of mix of walkthrough, restaurant, bar, and theater that was once found in Walt Disney World’s Downtown Disney. A “living theater” experience, the Adventurers Club earned a legion of fans who still miss the improv-inspired attraction, know its creed by heart, and would love to interact with its cast of original characters… Discovery Bay feels like the place to do it!

The Adventurers Club also serves as a stop on the Red Car Trolley. Yes, the Trolley would make its way through Buena Vista Street, on to Hollywoodland, finally end its route in Discovery Bay, where a trolley would actually make sense! Its entry from Hollywoodland would also be where you would find the two major attractions of the Wharf area.

The first would of course be TOWER OF TERROR: CURSE OF THE HIGHTOWER HOTEL. If you know your international Disney Parks, you’ll recognize this as recasting California Adventure’s existing tower to take on the appearance and story of Tokyo DisneySea’s Modern Marvel: Tower of Terror. Without using Hollywood or The Twilight Zone, Imagineers concocted this adventurous, nautical, mysterious ride that instead sees guests come face-to-face with a stolen idol whose curse dooms any who step into the long-abandoned Hightower Hotel…

While The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror’s story and setting are a more obvious fit for California Adventure, I think positioning this version of the ride as an anchor of Discovery Bay makes perfect sense, and would also create a lovely-looking tower to preside over the park… much nicer than, say, the lightning-scarred Hollywood variation or the pipes-and-satellite-dishes of Mission: Breakout!

The Wharf area would also make use of the very, very large showbuilding that currently houses the Animation building. While I saved the Animation Academy and made it an attraction along Hollywood Blvd., the Sorcerer’s Workshop (very cool) and Turtle Talk with Crush just don’t fit this version of the park, and that space is better utilized as THE FIREWORKS FACTORY – an exciting, colorful, musical, kinetic, interactive family dark ride. Like Tokyo’s Monsters Inc. ride, no scores! Just a joyful tour of the warehouse, setting off sparklers, pinwheels, and lights, all to the tune of a Sherman Brothers-esque song.

Leaving the more grounded Wharf and walking around a coastal lighthouse, guests would arrive in the second, more fantastical “half” of the land, Hyperion Harbor. Wrapped in rockwork, a rising boardwalk overlooks the bay and its literary vehicles, gaining in elevation until it reaches an airship dock…

Accessed via a descending spiral staircase, guests could enter the NAUTILUS GRAND SALON – a new full-service restaurant seemingly set aboard the Nautilus submarine that’s docked in the bay. (In reality, the descending staircase and underwater ‘bridge’ would truly connect to a hidden showbuilding containing the restaurant. This is a trick stolen from Disneyland Paris, where a similarly-disorienting entry experience appears to lead into the park’s Mysteries of the Nautilus walkthrough.)

But the rising path toward the rocky cliffs of Discovery Bay would also lead to two starring attractions…

… First, 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA would bring this sensational, suspended, “underwater” dark ride from DisneySea to California, also paying homage to Disneyland’s own, original Submarine Voyage.

… Second, the park would gain a new starring E-Ticket with VOYAGE TO THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND. Using the rotating boat ride system behind Shanghai’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Sunken Treasure, this dark ride would see guests take to the seas and explore the trials that await in search of Captain Nemo’s secret lair on Vulcania. A unique, thrilling ride that balances projection and physical sets, the headlining journey would be an anchor for the park.

Radiator Springs

You can say what you want about Cars Land and how this “Living Land” (the first of Disney’s many attempts to match the Wizarding World’s M.O.) fits California Adventure… The inescapable fact is that even if you don’t buy the notion that its celebration of Route 66 and Car Culture and mid-century style warrants its inclusion, it’s still a very awesome land, and a perfect capstone of the park’s relaunch effort.

Cars Land is great. Seriously. It doesn’t need much. So all I did was “plus” it with a concept that was initially part of the land’s plan before Pixar’s Cars became the central driving force behind it (right) and actually remained part of the plan during Cars Land’s initial development (above). My ROUTE 66 DRIVE-IN DINER simply takes the concept already expertly used in Hollywood Studios’ Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater and applies it to the Cars universe – literally such an obvious idea, I’m surprised it wasn’t brought as a Phase II of Cars Land when Rollickin’ Roadsters was installed.

Since the plot of land once envisioned as home to the Drive-In Diner is taken in my park by the transition to Discovery Bay from Cars Land, I simply have guests enter it through some Taillight Caverns by the courthouse, emerging in the desert at sunset, just as the trailers begin to roll.

Obviously, it would be fun to see trailers of great Hollywood classics, sci-fi B-movies, and Disney animated classics as they would exist in the Cars universe (with cars in every role). Would the main character in The Little Mermaid be half-car, half-submarine? Otherwise, no changes needed to Radiator Springs.

Grizzly Peak

But walking down Route 66 does return us to the park’s spine and the hub in front of the Carthay Circle Theater. From there, if we take the last unexplored spoke, we’d arrive in Grizzly Peak – again, beautifully and mercifully reset to the 1950s during the park’s 2012 reimagining. That image got even stronger when, in 2015, Imagineers swept through the Condor Flats “desert” area that had survived the redesign and officially integrated it into Grizzly Peak as Grizzly Peak Airfield, spreading gray rock and dense evegreens across the whole, combined area.

In the farthest edge of the land, I used the totally empty (except for restrooms) “San Francisco” rowhouses to conceal a new COUNTRY BEAR JAMBOREE, accessed from a lodge along the Grizzly Peak Bypass trail. Disneyland actually did have its own copy of the Modern Marvel: The Country Bear Jamboree, but the space was used for the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh dark ride in 2002. Since then, fans have been begging for the Bears’ return, and given that they’re often seen meet-and-greeting in Grizzly Peak, it’s a spot too perfect to pass up.

So much of Grizzly Peak is taken up by the mountain itself, and the raft ride that descends along its cliffs and waterfalls. The problem is, Disney has never really figured out how to use white water raft rides to great effect. (Neither Grizzly River Run, Kali River Rapids, nor Shanghai’s Roarin’ Rapids really feels like a must-ride).

Grizzly River Run, in particular, is weirdly devoid of… anything. While the 2012 land-wide redesign stylized the ride as a rustic family adventure instead of a modern extreme sports rally, there’s almost nothing to see along the ride’s course when even a few animatronic forest animals would help.

I went ahead and renamed the ride RAMBLIN’ RIVER RUN, to add some music and comedy. That could definitely be provided by the Country Bears, themselves, but the much more fun option would be the lean into the period-appropriate 1950s shorts star Humphrey the Bear. Humphrey is already a sort of “Easter egg” in Grizzly Peak, but some of the character’s comical vignettes (see above) would lend a great sense of humor to the ride, and communicate a lot in the chaotic instant that boats spin past.

Naturally, I returned SOARIN’ OVER THE GOLDEN STATE – a new, California-focused ride film for Soarin’.

Finally, I used Grizzly Peak as the long-standing excuse to bring MYSTIC MANOR to Disneyland. Developed for Hong Kong, this incredible, trackless dark ride is generally regarded as one of the best creations of Walt Disney Imagineering, and certainly among the most astounding modern rides on Earth.

We explored the making-of and experience-of the ride in its own in-depth Modern Marvels: Mystic Manor feature, but long story short, the ride sends guests through the international collections of a kindly retired S.E.A. member (connecting Grizzly Peak to Discovery Bay) when his playful monkey companion accidentally unleashed a magical music box whose tunes bring the global antiquities to life. There’s no reason Lord Mystic couldn’t have retired to an eclectic manor in the High Sierras rather than one in Papua New Gineau, and seeing that manor emerge from the redwoods and evergreens as you pass through the land would be quite a thrill…

And just like that, we’ve arrived at the last lands of my reimagined California Adventure… Read on…